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Lina Bartusevičiūtė holds a Sinology degree from Vilnius University, Lithuania, and is currently a master student at Fudan University in Shanghai. As a Chinese language and culture student she has conducted research on feminism and women rights in China.

According to her, ancient Chinese traditions declare no need for women and men to be equal, because initially they are different.

“Confucianism brings out the question – do we feel equal with men? Is there a need to feel equal? Women and men are initially different so that we can fulfill each other. According to the Confucianism philosophy, we need to be different; we need to have our gender areas and not to step out of them.

However, with the pace of time, the attitude towards the Confucianism in China has changed. Many started thinking it is discriminative towards women and on the base of this philosophy for the long term of time women were oppressed by men”.

Humble and meek

As Lina says, characters of women were shaped by historical circumstances. As Chinese had to figure out the way to distinguish themselves from other national groups living in the same territory, they started making some changes to the outlook of girls and no one actually took into account an opinion of a girl. It was obligatory to do what she was told.

“Chinese as nation wanted to look different than, for example, Mongolians living on the territories besides. They started knotting girl’s feet and making different hairstyle, so it would help people to identify a girl as a Chinese. At that times, mothers used to educate girls to be humble and meek, because this is how traditions imposed they have to be”, says Lina Bartusevičiūtė.

She adds that even nowadays the awareness of people in China of feminism and women rights is quite low. “Once at university I had to give a presentation about feminism. I couldn’t find any literature in Chinese on the topic, so I had to rely on foreign literature. Though teacher looked like understanding the subject, students didn’t get what I was talking about. All I saw in their faces was a misunderstanding, when I brought all these posters to show and stories to tell”, shares her experience Lina.

Calm before the storm

Evelina Daciūtė, a Lithuanian journalist, writer and poet, living in Beijing says that Westerners are very wrong in thinking that Chinese women are very obedient and all they do is just take care of home, husband and children.

“Chinese women are humble and meek just before the wedding. Afterwards, in most cases, women start ruling the family. Of course, Chinese women are more humble than Western women are, but we have to admit that China is changing, as well as the rest of the world. Young people are keeping a track of fashion, their attitudes are changing. Many of them go to study abroad, so it changes them and their behavior a lot,” says Evelina.

However, Lina Bartusevičiūtė says that women can be a head of the family, but publicly, especially in a business environment, she would act according to Chinese traditions.

“In a Chinese business environment an opinion about man is often based on the impression that his woman brings. Business partners would think, that if the man can’t control his woman, how will he rule the company?

Every wrong move by a woman can ruin good impression of a businessman. For example, if at the restaurant after seeing the bill, woman would start arguing with the waiter or complaining that the prices are not the same as in the menu, business partners could think that the man is not as rich as he is saying,” concludes Lina.